More than 21,000 animals have been found dead in Spain over the past 25 years.. Again, the real figure could be ten times higher and reach 200,000, because most bodies disappear before they are found and counted. Nonprofit SEO/BirdLife just launched a audiovisual summarizing the history of the fight against this illegal practice and highlighting the most relevant milestones that have allowed progress in its prevention and prosecution.
“Spain is the leading country in the fight against this illegal practice.“, underlines SEO/BirdLife, who made the video within the framework of the BirdLife International project, ‘Mava Safe Flyways–Combating toxic black spots in Spain’. The audiovisual is funded by the Maia Foundation, which is dedicated to biodiversity conservation.
The report ‘Poison in Spain. The Evolution of Wildlife Poisoning (1992-2017) by David de la Bodega (SEO/BirdLife), Carlos Cano (WWF), and Eva Mínguez reveals that fauna has been poisoned using poison baits – normally meat offal. mainly impregnated with phytosanitary products – “a Illegal method of mass, non-selective and ruthless predator controlaffecting many non-target species, including endangered species and domestic animals.
“The use of poison does not allow its exclusive use on the species to be eliminated, but rather any animal, including humans, can be poisonedas normally used substances cause violent death, great pain in affected animals” adds the report.
The documentary explores the fight against the illegal use of poison through different professionals from different fields involved and involved.
Cooperation and teamwork
Among them is Pablo Ayerza, a lawyer with extensive experience advocating the protection of nature against this crime, and Pablo Ayerza, who leaps into the story with interventions that reinforce and punctuate his testimony, summarizing the evolution of the struggle.
“If there’s one thing that stands out about this story, it’s tremendous. cooperation spirit and team work “It was developed from all fronts to solve the problem that inevitably led to success,” says Sara Cabezas, coordinator of the documentary on SEO/BirdLife conservation.
Cabezas, a survey of BirdLife Europe partners in 13 countries found that the tools available to combat this threat are “very patchy and sometimes very scarce compared to Spain”.
Most countries surveyed do not have national action plans against poison use and suffer from inadequate public labs to perform toxicological analyzes at affordable prices, adds the SEO/BirdLife leader.
NGO states Spain’s experience in overcoming these obstacles can be of great help to neighboring countries to make progress in the fight against this threat..
For this reason, it is essential to disseminate the achievements achieved in this field at the international level. SEO/BirdLife credits many of these achievements, LIFE Poisonmanaged a few years ago.
Although the illegal use of poison in the natural environment is a common practice all over the world, the intensity of use varies according to the region.
“The breeding populations of some bird species with a migratory nature and necrophagous habits, such as the red kite or the Egyptian vulture, may be destroyed or predicted by this practice at their wintering sites,” warns SEO/BirdLife.
prevent and follow
It is a shared responsibility to have the tools necessary for prevention Y persecution illegal use of poison and so on It guarantees the survival of not only resident species, but also migratory species.” highlights SEO / BirdLife.
So ask”Strengthening the European alliance and intercontinental to confront this threat by all available means, to convey the most enriching experiences developed in this field”.
But this illegal practice does not go away: Between January and June of this year, several specimens of the two species classified as “Endangered” were confirmed to have died of poisoning. According to the Spanish Catalog of Endangered Species and the Red Book of Birds in Spain: at least 4 specimens of Iberian imperial eagles in Castilla-La Mancha and 17 kites in this community and Castilla y León. It is not the only poisoning of protected species recorded in these regions. Data from other communities have yet to emerge.
“These data are continue to join forces and improve crime preventionto provide optimal indicators that allow example sentences to continue to reduce this practice”, reveals SEO/BirdLife.
The use of poison does serious damage to the conservation of many species.. It destabilizes food chains, destabilizing animal communities, causing imbalances and conflicts with human activities, and adversely affecting the ecosystem services provided by affected taxa.
“These losses and the cost of artificially replacing them should be considered when assessing the impact of this practice on the ecosystem,” says SEO/BirdLife.
Illegal use of poison is a crime. The Criminal Code provides for sentences of imprisonment of up to two years and special dismissal from one to three years..
Report ‘poison in Spain’: http://www.venenono.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Veneno-en-Espan%CC%83a-informe-2020-web-corr-24julio.pdf
Source: Informacion
